Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
and religious zeal (the Indian interpretation). All of these and other factors play a
role, but the conflict is greater than the sum of its parts.
The world's most intractable disputes are paired minority conflicts.
2
Such
conflicts are rooted in perceptions held by important groups on both sides—even
those that are not a numerical minority, and which may even be a majority—that
they are the threatened, weaker party, under attack from the other side. Paired
minority conflicts are most often found within states, although many of these,
such as the bitter Sinhala-Tamil conflict in Sri Lanka, have international
implications. Others occur between states, including that between Israel and
some of its Arab neighbors.
Another state-level paired minority conflict is that of Iraq and Iran, where Iraq
fears the larger (and ideologically threatening) Iran, which in turn sees Iraq as the
spear point of a hostile Arab world. South Africa and Northern Ireland are two
other sites of such conflicts, and in South Asia, Sri Lanka has a paired minority
conflict between its minority Tamil population and the Sinhalese. The former
believe they are under a comprehensive threat from the more numerous
Sinhalese, while the latter believe
themselves
to be the threatened minority, given
the fact that there are sixty million Tamils across the Palk Straits. The Tigers
argue that Tamils can never be secure unless there is a Tamil homeland on the
island.
These conflicts seem to draw their energy from an inexhaustible supply of
distrust. It is difficult for one side to compromise even on trivial issues, since
doing so might confirm one's own weakness and invite further demands.
Furthermore, leaders entrapped in such conflicts are resistant to make
concessions when they have the advantage, believing that as the stronger side
they can bend the other party to its will. As if they were on a teeter-totter, the two
sides take turns in playing the role of advantaged/disadvantaged. They may
briefly achieve equality, but their state of dynamic imbalance inhibits the
prospect of long-term negotiations and tends to abort any effort to have an
institutionalized peace process.
These paired minority conflicts are also morally energized. Politics takes place
where the search for justice overlaps with the pursuit of power. In South Asia,
goaded by a sense of injustice, conflict is legitimized because it seems to be the
only way to protect the threatened group. Additionally, the group sees itself as
threatened because it is morally or materially
superior
. Even past defeats and
current weaknesses are 'explained' by one's own virtues, which invite the envy
of others.
Psychological paired minority conflicts are characterized by distrust of those
who advocate compromise, whether outsiders or citizens of one's own state. The
former may be fickle; they may shift their support to the other side for one reason
or another.
